Archive for June, 2011

The Shelburne Museum in Vermont has created an all-star exhibition of paper arts. It almost seems that the curators poked into my brain and complied all my favorite artists and crammed them into this exciting show titled, Paperwork in 3D .

In various spaces throughout the museum, two dozen contemporary artists at the top of their respective fields exhibit fine examples of dimensional papercraft. I am especially interested in the complex origami of Robert Lang; the intricate cut paper worlds of Beatrice Coron; the kinetic paper engineering of Matthew Schlian; the book manipulation of Brian Dettmer; and the fine photography of pulp novels by Tom Allen.

Closer to home, museum attendees can see the progression of pop-up book creations from paper engineers Matthew Reinhart and Sam Ita. From concept sketches to white prototypes; color art samples to final production materials, Reinhart’s Chinese Lung from Dragons & Monsters comes roaring to life.

This amazing exhibit is on display until the end of October, so if you were looking for a summer vacation, look no further.

Today we are looking at some very rare Italian pop-up activity books. Ever since I was given “Cappuccetto Russo” and “I Tre Porcellini” I have been curious about this series of handmade DIY pop-up books. So I went to the source, the Bologna-based paper engineer, Massimo Missiroli. He was kind enough to provide some background on these books which he started in 1997.

Each title has different dimensions and comprise of a number of black and white printed sheets that are sealed in a plastic bag. A rough translation of the promotional material is as follows:

“POP-UP stripe is a new series of cards in which we intend to show operational techniques for the construction of mini-books that will have classic fairy tales as their subject. Build each pop-up book which consists of five pages on a single folded strip of paper.”

Massimo came up with the idea while leading pop-up workshops with children. He decided to start his own small publishing company. Then he created and assembled the packets and sold the Pop-up Stripes via mail orders. Around 2002, the Italian publisher Quercetti bought the concept and released new versions of Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs and Pinocchio. At that time, Massimo published a wonderful pop-up version of Pinocchio for Emme Edizioni. (We will see more of this title next week.)

I have yet to see any of the Quercetti versions in the flesh so if any of you readers know if they are readily available or have more information please leave a comment. Now, I go back to my collector’s dilemma – open my Pop-up Stripe and take pleasure in making my own model or keep it in it’s original condition to share with future book lovers.

The Smithsonian Libraries have recently posted the video of Bruce Foster talking about “The Magic and Math of Harry Potter, The Pop-Up Book” in the Carmichael Auditorium on Tuesday, May 10th, 2011 at the National Museum of American History. If you were not able to make it last month, now is your chance to learn about his pop-up process and get a sneak peek of his upcoming projects.